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WHOOOOO HOOOO SurfCat gonna drive the olo! Now that is super-duper hip. That dude's go-to is some giant , like 9 foot BZ5 (heh heh heh, there's a name from the past, eh Roy). Campbell Bros Bonzer for those who don't partake of the erBB. What else you gonna ride when you haven't missed a day of surf in over 13,000 days! Roy, I can think of no more core surfer on this planet. What a great honor. Man, I hope that beastie makes it to the Southlands this summer.

Yeah I'd rather have Dale do it than all the pros in the cage, I hope he signs the board bag!

I don't know a darn thing about paulownia, but I was under the impression that it's a pretty good wood to use for things that are going to be exposed to sea water. I thought it was kind of like teak in that respect, don't they both resist absorbing water? Tom Wegener is using it for alaias, paipos and hand planes out here; I see him and a lot of other people riding paulownia thing-a-ma-bobbers.

I know that sapele is a very soft wood, it's the soundboard of my guitar and an errant pick will leave a mark.

I'm actually interested in the design aspects of surfboards in general. Erock, I've gathered you know a thing or two about wood (huh huh, sorry).

Why is sapele a superior wood to use for ocean going craft in comparison to paulownia?

By the way, there's a great thread on Sway's about how FireWire is going to make a recycled EPS core board clad in a Paulownia skin. First FireWire I've ever seen that I looked at and said, "I wouldn't mind trying one of those out." I've had my eye on a Sunova or a Hess though.

*Note: I have not yet built a wooden surfboard, I'm drawing on my experience through other projects*

Paulownia is a great wood for building surfboards, boats and anything else really. It's also a very sustainable product since you can essentially harvest it and it grows back. I just think it looks kinda blah, especially if its not accompanied with something else. Plus I don't like the way it bends with or without steam because the grain is sort of all over the place and inconsistent. I also would not use it in a solid board like you would use Balsa or that funky Banana Tree stuff Gary Linden uses in some of his stuff because it's way too dense for that application. Alaias are fine with it solid because they are so thin.

For anything you are going to glass you want to avoid Teak because its so oily and I doubt you would be able to get a long lasting lamination.

The lighter (less dense) Mahoganies like Sapele, various Central American species and the incorrectly named Spanish Cedar (it's actually in the Mahogany family) are a good balance of aesthetics, density and weight in my opinion. But I'm also a sucker for iridescence and crazy grains so I would be more prone to using dense wood as well, but resawn into thin but wide veneers and laminated to something else thin and light like cedar to reduce the weight. Not sure but that may have positive or negative effects on whatever flex the board might have but will be fun to experiment with.

That said, density and weight won't matter if your joints are as sloppy and full of epoxy as Roy's. That probably adds an additional 5 lbs. to his "surf craft."

Oh yeah, Roy: The tunnel on your Makaha is obtuse, out of circle, lop-sided. I'm "sure" you're going to say you meant to do that.

Thanks. You finally posted something worth a damn. However, this video shows a slow board that isn't easy to turn. Again, not sure if it is the user, or just that the board isn't working well. I can cruise on my friend's Allison 9'6" way easier than these videos are showing. And before you say I am comparing based on some flawed performance concept, I cruise the same way the guys in the video are riding. However, the Allison is quick and can turn, so it doesn't get closed out so easily.